Let me explain to you that if it is advertised at $30000, it will be within the limits of the alloctated amount of tax rabates that remains to GM, if it remains some in 2017… So it will be a compliance car in 50 states.
If it is advertised at it’s full price of around $37500 It has no tax rebate limits, but it’s a heafty price for such a smal car. And furthermore, it lets me think that they do not have the will to produce many of them since economies of scale would allow a substancial reduction on the price tag.

We will see in two years… But it is clear that it is also the Tesla effect on ICE car makers.

Do you have to work at coming up with silly comments or does it come naturally? Just wondering.

Pretty standard practice. Tesla always cites the price “after incentives”, though it always includes the $7500 federal tax credit and the $2500 California rebate. Not sure how this makes all its cars “compliance only”. Are you saying that every car Tesla sells is “definitely compliance only”?

Tesla has been very explicit that their ~$35k estimate for the Model 3 does not include any government incentives. If this does, that means the Bolt will be essentially the same price rather than with a $5k gap in between.

Jake is correct in the fact that Tesla clarified that their $35k price target is without the $7500 federal tax credit. Musk said Tesla expects to burn through the 200k US sales before hitting volume production of the Model 3 (take this with as much kosher salt as you palate can handle). This is their target starting price (which they have missed before).

But to be fair, GM had comparable swings and misses with Volt, Spark EV, and ELR. They are better on staying on schedule though.

Volt at concept was a $30k vehicle with 40 mile AER + range extender, targeting volumes of 60k – 80k per year (aka Prius killer). Instead it started with a base MSRP of $40k (initial dealer markup to $50k+) and 36 mile AER. Lets hope Volt 2.0 fulfills the commitments of the original concept.

Spark EV was the torque monster, stop light racer that was the GM answer to the LEAF. Set to take over the BEV market in the US, with availability soon in all 50 states. All of the non-Carb states are still waiting.

ELR…why didn’t they release this one year ahead of the Volt 1.0 for $60k. They would have sold 2k – 5k of them easily with nice margins and had a groundswell for the initial wave Volt buyers. At least it looks great!

All of the OEMs can put on their plug-in boots and knock it out of the park with a press release or concept car. If we were measuring by announcements, VW would have a slight lead over Tesla and GM for world leader of plug-ins.

What counts is butts in seats, and on that front Nissan is clearly in the pole position worldwide. GM hit it hard early with the Volt, but they haven’t shown the commitment Nissan has had to follow through. They have also completely failed overseas with all plug-ins. I really hope we have been watching GM regathering themselves for a huge second push.

Tesla is a different animal. They have to sell BEVs. They have to make gross margins on them. Or they die…

It is fun to watch the animals in the wild. We are really five years away from finding out which one is holding the next “Toyota Prius” style trump card.

I like your idea that many others had also suggested: GM should have brought the ELR out at 60k to get the early adopters and maybe a small profit too, while attracting some Tesla buyers at a slightly lower price point, that were less concerned with performance and perhaps not sold on the new Tesla company. Imagine the pent up demand for Chevy buyers then when the price “drops” 20k to 40. As a salesman who sold every Volt our dealership retailed last year (not saying much) its my belief that the Volt is a terrific car with a great following that GM failed to market properly. Hopefully this new mainstream style and increased range will get them to put some advertising together nation wide.

If you were asking the question whether all cars which relied on incentives were “compliance cars”, then the answer is “no”. If you were asserting that this GM car should be deemed a “compliance car” because it was eligible for an incentive then, regardless of language, that’s a silly assertion.

And when can we get rid of the shifter! It is a complete waste of space and added cost. Just put a small knob or buttons on the dash or steering column. I’d rather have cupholders or a place to stash my cellphone than a completely pointless ornamental shifter waste of space!

So let’s say 37,500$ for a 200 mile range EV compared to 45,000$ for an i3 or 27,000$ for a Leaf, which both deliver about 80 miles of range. This says good things about the second generation of EVs. The only downside is having to wait.

Fifty miles is significant but a lower price could compensate for that. A range of 150 is probably fine for local driving. Adding another 50 AER is great but not critical.

The bigger issue is battery fade. I don’t think anyone should consider Nissan BEVs until Nissan equips them with a TMS. Because of battery fade, on a cold day my Volt has more electric range than my Leaf. Crazy.

The dash looks great. I guess the team that was studying Tesla learned something. I sure hope this concept makes it to production intact. I’ll buy one for the Electric Car Guest Drive as soon as it’s available.

Everyone working hard this am, no question. We probably have put up a little too much coverage of the 2016 Volt/Bolt, but hey – if you aren’t into them, just take the morning off and everything will get back to ‘normal’ soon, (=

Yeah all that glass probably won’t make it past crash testing, which is a shame, because it looks like it will have great rear visibility. I know rear cameras are pretty much the norm going forward, but my ’13 Leaf blind spots are horrible.

To actually sell a 200 mile EV, GM will have to seriously step into the FCDC charge station network arena. GM is is committed to the SAE combo charger, but in three years, the Tesla SC network and the Chademo network (thanks to Nissan’s aggressive promotion) will probably be almost ubiquitous. It will be interesting to watch how this plays out.

That is a broad statement, if you aren’t going to break out how CCS is likely to be used. Crossing the U.S., you want a Tesla, but once you get into distances people drive, at least in the warm 200 mile case, a Bolt is far more likely to need a single “top up” for most trips. There, it becomes who’s with you and how patient they are, waiting ~30 minutes on that 300 mile trip.

Those “CCS moments” will raise envy for Tesla, but I bet driving culture will eventually adapt.

It took a little getting used to, with the look of that white earlier concept in my head when I arose this morning, but I have to say that the more I look at this EV, the more I like it.
It looks better than the LEAF, i3, and Spark.
After a 35 year long hate of anything GM, both the Volt and now the Bolt make two GM cars that I would actually consider buying.
Gotta give GM credit where it’s due.

This does not look like a CUV to me other than it’s side profile styling. I’d say it’s closest competitor size wise that happens to be available now or the very near future, offering about 85 e miles per charge is the VW e-Golf.

VW and Kia and others won’t be standing still or sitting on old batteries waiting for GM to come out with this. They have BEVs to sell now in 2015 and by 2017 I expect we will have quite a variety of BEV choices pushing the 200 +/- mile range. I do like this Bolt exterior styling exercise and hope the real car is close, though I’d personally prefer a true wagon in length, wheelbase and space. And I want HVAC and radio control knobs that can be operated with minimal eye contact. GM listened to the Gen I Volt owners and that what’ve are getting in Gen II, as it should be.

I like it. Chevy surprised me, especially after seeing the underwhelming new Volt. I have the current Volt for another year, and would definitely lease this if it would be available then. I had a Honda Fit before the Volt and loved it, and this reminds me of the Fit.

I do want it to be faster than the Volt, though. 0-60 in 7 secs, at least, otherwise I might as well buy a used RAV4 EV.

A Leaf, albeit easier on the eyes IMO, with twice the range for about $10K more. It will be interesting to see how many mainstream buyers really “need” 20 miles of range. Tesla Model S buyers, other than me, are happy to plunk down thousands of dollars for rarely if ever used range but that won’t be as true for sub $40K buyers.

It looks to be competition for the i3, Leaf, etc but I don’t expect it to be strong competition for the Model 3. We’ll have a better idea once Model 3 is actually revealed in more detail.